2006 Nissan Maxima 3.5 SL Review

We’ve cooked up a plan to do a really thorough road test of the
sixth-generation Maxima, Nissan’s flagship sedan. We’re gonna
take her south, run her hard, put her away wet and see how she performs.
I’ve always liked the Maxima for the leading-edge styling and for
Nissan’s penchant for offering a performance version.

This Maxima is a four-passenger, front-wheel-drive, full-size,
near-luxury sedan. Yes that’s four-passenger, not five. You see the
rear has a hard console between the firm, heated, leather bucket seats
– an option. Rear passengers will certainly feel pampered. It’s
plenty roomy inside with nice leather seats and trim, an unusual suede (or
perhaps faux-suede, not sure which) covering the door panels and extending
entirely across the base of the windshield. Nice touch. Shapes and design
both inside and out are unconventional and, in my subjective view, very
attractive.

We leave early on a late winter day and hit I-75 south for a 9-hour run
to east central Tennessee. This time it takes 10 hours because
they’ve closed one lane across the bridge at Jellico. We’ll be
based at the Fairfield Glade resort near Crossville on the Cumberland
Plateau. Day trips will give us a chance to put the Maxima through her
paces. The initial freeway jaunt was pleasant and uneventful. I’m
fond of the easy-to-use cruise control system that allows for accurate and
smooth speed changes through cop-rich Ohio.

By the way, lunch on the initial run was at Cozymel’s off I-40 on
the west side of Knoxville. If you like Mexican food, great service and
ambiance, fresh salsa heavy with cilantro, and huge portions,
Cozymel’s is the place.

We initially notice a couple of niggles inside the Maxima. I don’t
know if the steering wheel has ever been off this test car (at press time
we’re still waiting for clarification) but if not there are quality
issues that need addressing. The housing that contains the stalks between
the steering wheel and the dash is crooked, squeehawed, off center. And the
metal bands that decorate the spokes of the steering wheel are ill fit and
uneven. Otherwise we find the quality, fit and finish excellent.

The first road trip, to Chattanooga, takes us sort of due south where we
drop off the edge of the Cumberland Plateau about 20 miles from Crossville.
Highway US127 winds through the gentle, verdant Sequatchie Valley where
cattle graze the rolling grassy hills. The Maxima gets an opportunity to
run at less than freeway speeds for a change. We set the cruise control at
about sixty on this smooth, gently winding two-lane through pasturelands
and a few small towns. We’ll see what kind of gas mileage we get at
such a gentle cruise. We seem to have been getting about 25 mpg on the 80
mph freeway run, so will probably do even better here.

About 20 miles away from the city we cross Signal Mountain on an
especially fun section of US127 that gives us ample opportunity to test the
sway and swoosh of the suspension. With the shifter in manual mode we keep
the rpms up and drive it hard. We’re impressed with the road holding
ability of this fairly large sedan. Though not a “sport” tuned
suspension (which comes on the SE version) sway is minimal and road holding
is excellent. Fully independent suspension with stabilizer bars both front
and rear as well as engine-speed sensitive power rack and pinion steering
keep us on track and unflustered at speed. The P255/55R17 Continental
ContiTouring Contact tires felt nice and grippy with no squealing on hard
charged corners.

While Chattanooga deserves a long weekend sometime we only have the day.
As regular readers will recall we visited the Museum of Towing and Recovery
here a few months ago while testing the Mitsubishi Outlander, wishing we
had more time to spend in this lovely city on the Moccasin Bend of the
Tennessee River. Our tourist bureau host makes a few recommendations and
raves about the food options in Chattanooga, from calamari to catfish and
from Moon Pies to filet mignon. This time we spend the day at the
remarkable Hunter Museum of American Art and the famous Ruby Falls, leaving
the renowned Tennessee Aquarium for the next trip. Those visits, along with
lunch at a busy little fresh burger place called Cheeburger Cheeburger,
spent our day. But as we left town we passed the Mt. Vernon restaurant were
more than one of the locals recommended great deserts. We snagged the most
popular one, the Amaretto cream pie, for the ride home. What a treat! On
the way out of Chattanooga we decided to take Suck Creek Road, another
route back across Signal Mountain - another fun drive, indeed.

Our final loop off the Cumberland Plateau takes us southwest on Highway
101 from Crossville to the Fall Creek Falls State Park just west of Mt.
Crest. From the park’s nature center a 2-mile hiking trail follows
the ridge above Cane Creek Gorge with a half dozen trail spurs out to the
edge. Five waterfalls run off the plateau into the gorge, the largest of
which is higher than Niagara, though a bit skinnier.

We leave the park and drive the Maxima crisply through about fifteen
miles of tightly winding roads into and out of the gorge before finally
swooping off the plateau and westward toward the quaint village of
Franklin, about 20 miles south of Nashville. We’re pressing that
great 3.5-liter V6 engine, rated one of the ten best engines by Wards Auto
World. With 265 horsepower and 255 lb.-ft. of torque, continuously variable
valve timing and variable intake we’re never at a loss for grunt,
even on the steep uphills. Of course, keeping the smooth-shifting 5-speed
automatic in the manual mode helps. Shifts are not particularly fast but
they are smooth unless we’re shifting back and forth between 2nd and
3rd at fairly high rpm. Then it can be a bit jerky.

Franklin is one of those suburban communities that until recently was
just a nice little small town. Being close to a major city –
Nashville – and having nice architecture and an inspired Chamber of
Commerce, it has become a destination with unusual shops and eateries. Our
Maxima looks right at home parked on the square with all the other fancy
vehicles. Maxima’s styling, after all, is probably boldest of any of
its contemporaries. After lunch at the Mellow Mushroom, Southern style
pizza place, on the corner of the town square in Franklin, and some
shopping for my pretty blonde we eased onto the packed freeway for a visit
to the spectacular Gaylord Opryland Nashville Hotel, a destination in
itself, featuring three gardens indoors and one out, the result of a recent
$85-million renovation. Waterfalls, orchid displays, a boat canal, dancing
fountains, a banana tree with growing fruit, sculptures, shops, restaurants
. . . the Gaylord would be right at home in Las Vegas or Orlando. Worth a
visit, to be sure.

An extended after-dark drive back from Nashville will take a couple of
hours. It was raining rather steadily exaggerating the Maxima’s
limited sound insulation. Like the Altima on which it is based the Maxima
allows too much road noise to intrude into the cabin. Fortunately,
we’re able to turn the dash lights completely off, but the blue
cruise control indicators still glare at me. The navigation screen will dim
but I’d have it dim more if I were the designer. There is really no
need for anything to remain lit in these night driving conditions. Nothing
prevents eye fatigue better than getting rid of those lights in front of
you. Four lanes of freeway traffic each way flow into and out of Nashville
on I-40 but it flows steadily and we’re back onto the Plateau and
Crossville in no time.

While wrapping up the research on this brash sedan a couple other
annoyances presented themselves. I found the rear door openings a bit
restrictive. I bumped my head getting in and whacked my knee getting out.
And, the more I looked at the interior details the less I liked them
– again subjective. It seemed to me there were too many different
colors and materials inside making everything a bit incongruous, i.e., the
brushed aluminum face of the center stack didn’t match anything else;
at least two different colors of painted metal adorn other parts of the
gauges and interior trim, steering wheel and door panels; and the wood
panel on the console was too glossy making it look artificial. The seat
heater switch is tucked away under the lip of the center console lid and
the navigation system was less than intuitive, at least for this low-tech
kind of guy.

Other things I really liked include the power tilt and telescopic
steering wheel, which is quick with lots of range, that amazingly smooth,
powerful and efficient V6, easy ingress and egress in the front and the
bold exterior styling.

For all you audiophiles out there our SL comes standard with an
8-speaker Bose system including AM/FM/cassette/in-dash 6-CD changer and is
pre-wired for Satellite radio.

Warranty is 36 month/36,000-mile basic, 60-month/unlimited mileage
corrosion perforation, and 60-month/60,000 miles on the drive train.

The SE version starts at about $27,000 and our SL test car has a base
price of $30,000. Satellite radio adds $350, Vehicle Dynamic Control is
$600, navigation system with 7-inch monitor comes to $1,800 power sunroof
is $900 and our “Elite Package” (power rear sunshade, heated
rear seats with console, 12-volt power outlet in the rear and auto up/down
rear windows) adds $1,700. With the $605 destination charge our sticker
says $36,005.

EPA estimates for fuel economy I thought might be a bit optimistic at 20
in the city and 28 mpg on the highway. But our observed average over a
variety of conditions and over 2,200 miles was 28.3 mpg, with the best at
30.4 and the worst (most of the tank spent running around town) 24.2 mpg -
amazing, for a powerful V6 with automatic transmission in a nearly
3,500-pound luxury sedan that’s capable of zero to 60 mph in 6.5
seconds. The fuel tank holds 20 gallons and there is more than 4 gallons
left when the gauge says empty.

In the same league as Avalon and Lucerne, Maxima is much different than
either. If you’re in that market you might want to check out the
Maxima. We rode her hard, lived with her for a week and were mighty
impressed.

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